The present invention relates to articles which are designed to clean fabrics in a non-immersion cleaning process.
By classical definition, the term xe2x80x9cdry cleaningxe2x80x9d has been used to describe processes for cleaning textiles using nonaqueous solvents. Dry cleaning is an old art, with solvent cleaning first being recorded in the United Kingdom in the 1860""s. Typically, dry cleaning processes are used with garments such as woolens which are subject to shrinkage in aqueous laundering baths, or which are judged to be too valuable or too delicate to subject to aqueous laundering processes. Various hydrocarbon and halocarbon solvents have traditionally been used in immersion dry cleaning processes, and the need to handle and reclaim such solvents has mainly restricted the practice of conventional dry cleaning to commercial establishments.
Together with the soil and stain removal aspects of a typical dry cleaning process, there is also a consumer need for what can be termed fabric xe2x80x9crefreshmentxe2x80x9d compositions and processes. Thus, fabrics which have lint, hair or other solid debris clinging to the fabric surface, and which may have adsorbed malodors, have become wrinkled, or have otherwise lost their fresh appearance, are often subjected to conventional commercial dry cleaning processes mainly to reestablish their freshness aspect.
Attempts have been made to provide in-home dry cleaning systems. One type of in-home system for cleaning and refreshing garments comprises a carrier sheet containing various cleaning agents and a plastic bag. The garments are placed in the bag together with the sheet, and then tumbled in a conventional clothes dryer. In a commercial embodiment, multiple single-use flat sheets and a single multi-use plastic bag are provided in a package. Unfortunately, such in-home processes are sub-optimal with respect to the removal of lint and other solid debris from fabric surfaces.
For purposes of convenience and economics, the carrier sheet for use in these home dry cleaning processes is often folded one or more times to allow for smaller shipping and storage packaging. But in use, these carrier sheets tend to refold along the crease lines resulting in reduction in the exposed surface area of the sheet. With less exposed surface area the efficiency of these sheets is substantially reduced, resulting in reduced cleaning and refreshing.
PCT Application US 96/02886, published Oct. 3, 1996, to Maxwell Davis, discloses the problems associated with such sheet re-folding in an in-home, non-immersion cleaning/refreshment process. The patentee describes the use of macroscopic holes punched through the sheets to help prevent re-folding. However, punching holes in the sheets requires an extra processing step during manufacture, at added expense. U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,848, issued May 20, 1997 to Young, Bavely, Roetker and Davis, discloses the use of HYDRASPUN(copyright) sheets and bespeaks the advantage that re-folding is minimized, as compared with conventional non-wovens. However, the re-fold problem is not completely solved. Moreover, when the HYDRASPUN(copyright) sheets are enrobed in a fibrous coversheet, as disclosed hereinafter, re-folding can again become problematic. Hence, there remains a continuing need for carrier sheets and methods of forming these sheets which minimizes refolding of the sheets during use.
The present invention provides improved pick-up and removal of lint and other particulate matter from fabrics which are being cleaned and/or refreshed, or fugitive lint in the bag, and substantially reduces the occurrence of refolding of the carrier sheet. These benefits are secured when a carrier sheet that releasably contains a cleaning/refreshment composition is textured, is covered with a coversheet material that is textured and/or which is treated with a tackiness agent, as disclosed hereinafter. In a preferred mode, the tackiness agent is placed on the inner surface of the coversheet, thereby avoiding damage to the fabrics being cleaned/refreshed.
WO 97/00993A1, published Jan. 9, 1997 to Weller, et al.; WO 97/00990A2, published Jan. 9, 1997 to Tyerech, et al.; GB 2,302,553A, published Jan. 22, 1997 to Telesca, et al.; GB 2,302,878A, published Feb. 5, 1997 to Weller, et al.; and GB 2,302,879A, published Feb. 5, 1997 to Sidoti, et al. all relate to in-dryer fabric cleaning. U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,722, issued to S. H. Sax, Aug. 6, 1985, relates to a fabric conditioning device for use in a laundry dryer. A peracid-containing dry cleaning composition is described in U.S. Pat No. 4,013,575, issued to H. Castrantas, et al., Mar. 22, 1977. Dry cleaning processes are disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,476 issued Aug. 20, 1996 to Siklosi and Roetker; U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,236 issued Jan. 7, 1997 to Roetker; U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,847 issued May 20, 1997 to Roetker; U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,848 issued May 20, 1997 to Young, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,780 issued May 27, 1997 to Siklosi; EP 429,172A1, published May 29, 1991, Leigh, et al.; and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,587, issued Aug. 24, 1993, Smith, et al. Other references relating to dry cleaning compositions and processes, as well as wrinkle treatments for fabrics, include: GB 1,598,911; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,126,563, 3,949,137, 3,593,544, 3,647,354; 3,432,253 and 1,747,324; and German applications 2,021,561 and 2,460,239, 0,208,989 and 4,007,362. Cleaning/pre-spotting compositions and methods are also disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,102,573; 5,041,230; 4,909,962; 4,115,061; 4,886,615; 4,139,475; 4,849,257; 5,112,358; 4,659,496; 4,806,254; 5,213,624; 4,130,392; and 4,395,261. Sheet substrates for use in a laundry dryer are disclosed in Canadian 1,005,204. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,956,556 and 4,007,300 relate to perforated sheets for fabric conditioning in a clothes dryer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,277 discloses the use of 1,2-octanediol in liquid cleaners. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,591,510; 3,737,387; 3,764,544; 3,882,038; 3,907,496; 4,097,397; 4,102,824; 4,336,024; 4,594,362; 4,606,842; 4,758,641; 4,797,310; 4,802,997; 4,943,392; 4,966,724; 4,983,317; 5,004,557; 5,062,973; 5,080,822; 5,173,200; EP 0 213 500; EP 0 261 718; G.B. 1,397,475; WO 91/09104; WO 91113145; WO 93125654 and Hunt, D. G. and N. H. Morris, xe2x80x9cPnB and DPnB Glycol Ethersxe2x80x9d, HAPPI, April 1989, pp. 78-82.
The present invention encompasses an article for treating fabrics, comprising:
a) an absorbent substrate having a first surface and a second surface;
b) a liquid cleaning/refreshment composition releasably absorbed in the substrate;
c) the substrate being wholly (preferred) or at least partly covered by a coversheet, preferably a fibrous coversheet, which is permeable to the cleaning/refreshment composition in the liquid or vapor state, the coversheet having an external surface and an internal surface, the article comprising a tackiness agent which can be on the surface of the absorbent carrier substrate, on the coversheet, or on both the substrate and the coversheet.
In a preferred embodiment of this invention there is provided an article for treating fabrics, comprising:
a) an absorbent substrate having a first surface and a second surface;
b) a liquid cleaning/refreshment composition releasably absorbed in the substrate; and
c) the substrate being wholly or at least partly covered by a coversheet which has an external surface and an internal surface and which is permeable to the cleaning/refreshment composition in the liquid or vapor state; and
wherein at least one of the cover sheet and the absorbent substrate have a texture imparting pattern of indentations on at least one of their surfaces, preferably the article also comprises a tackiness agent.
In another preferred mode the coversheet substantially envelops the substrate. In a highly preferred mode, the tackiness agent is on the internal surface of the coversheet.
The cleaning/refreshment composition used herein can comprise water and a member selected from the group consisting of organic surfactants, organic solvents, auxiliary cleaning agents, and mixtures thereof. In a preferred mode, the cleaning/refreshment composition comprises water and a surfactant, especially a nonionic surfactant, e.g. an ethoxylated alcohol or ethoxylated alkyl phenol surfactant.
The invention thus provides articles of manufacture in sheet form which are specifically adapted to clean and/or refresh fabrics in a hot air clothes dryer, comprising:
(a) a core element which comprises a liquid absorbing carrier in sheet form;
(b) a liquid cleaning/refreshment composition comprising at least about 95%, by weight, of water releasably absorbed in the core element;
(c) a permeable coversheet which enrobes the outer surfaces of the core element, the article containing the tackiness agent. In a preferred embodiment, the liquid absorbing carrier and/or the coversheet has a texture imparting pattern of indentations on at least one of the surfaces of the liquid absorbing carrier and/or the coversheet.
Preferably the cleaning/refreshment composition comprises up to about 2%, by weight, of a nonionic surfactant.
The invention also provides a cleaning/refreshment process for treating a fabric, comprising the overall steps of:
(a) placing the fabric together with an article according to this invention in a containment bag, preferably of the vapor-venting type;
(b) placing the bag in a hot air clothes dryer and operating the dryer with heat and tumbling; and
(c) removing the fabric from the bag.
It has surprisingly been found that by applying texture to the absorbent substrate, the coversheet, or both, the cleaning article made therefrom rarely refolds during use. The cleaning article carries the cleaning/refreshing solution into the bag, and cleaning and refreshing of the fabrics occurs only after the solution evaporates from the sheet. Refolding of the cleaning article diminishes the exposed surface area of the article, which in turn diminishes the rate of evaporation of the solution, resulting in less cleaning/refreshing vapors in the bag. By avoiding refolding the textured cleaning articles of this invention are substantially more efficient at delivering the cleaning/refreshing solution to the fabrics being cleaned and refreshed.
All percentages, ratios and proportions herein are by weight, unless otherwise specified. All documents cited are, in relevant part, incorporated herein by reference.